Norway Gives Green Light to Wintershall for Maria Development
The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy gave the green light to Wintershall, and its partners Petoro and Centrica for development and operation (PDO) of the Maria development, offshore Norway.
‘Germany’s largest internationally active crude oil and natural gas producer submitted the PDO to the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy on May 5. The approved development solution for the Maria field involves two subsea templates located on the ocean floor tied back to several host installations in the area’ Wintershall wrote about itself on Friday.
Under the approved development solution, the Maria reservoir will be linked via a subsea tieback to the Kristin, Heidrun and Åsgard B production platforms.
“This is another important landmark for Wintershall in Norway. In a challenging oil price environment, we are moving ahead with the execution of this key development project. Through Maria we are investing in one of our core international regions which demonstrates our commitment on the Norwegian Continental Shelf,” Hugo Dijkgraaf, Wintershall Maria Project Director, commented.
The Maria field is located approximately 20 kilometres east of the Kristin field and about 45 kilometres south of the Heidrun field in the Halten Terrace in the Norwegian Sea. Wintershall Norge is the operator of the license with a 50% share. Petoro has a 30% share and Centrica Resources (Norge) owns the remaining 20%.
Meanwhile, Statoil reported its progress in the region.
‘Two and a half years after project sanction, production commences from Smørbukk South Extension. The offshore project at the Åsgard field is a world class project in production from tight formations’ the Norwegian company wrote on Friday.
The reserves in the Smørbukk South Extension project are estimated to be 16.5 million bbl oil equivalent.
Also on Friday, Statoil concluded the drilling of wildcat well 30/9-27 S. Preliminary estimates of the size of the discovery range between one and two million standard cubic metres (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalents.